<ambience class="ghosttown"/> Haloo? <tumbleweed/> ... In other news: Noir, the last of our rats, passed away last night at home of natural causes at the age of 3. She was the smartest, nicest, most energetic and most "nesting" of our four recent rats. Her only fault was a lack of litter training, which isn't uncommon in rats but we were spoiled by our first (Nicodemus) who never "leaked" outside her cage. While Isis, Happosai and finally Rose were on their way out Noir took care of them in a motherly sort of way. She'd been healthy her entire life until a suffering Happosai was being taken to be euthanized, at which point we discovered a tumor in her leg. Unlike the others, she recovered from surgery almost completely and with no remission, and was climbing around like a little monkey in no time. After Rose's death, Noir's age finally caught up with her and she slowed down a lot, and eventually lost use of one of her rear legs. Until the end she was eager for cuddles and to explore the bedroom, chasing the dog away from her spot beside a person. So ends this Bell family's rat saga. Joshua _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
